hrynyshyn | September 29, 2006One of the biggest weaknesses with string theory, as an explanation for the way the universe is the way it is, and a possible way to bring together relativity and quantum physics, is the paucity of testable aspects. And if it ain't testable, it ain't science. So say the critics. But maybe string theory is testable after all.
The most recent proposed test pops up in today's Science. Tom Siegfried's story reports that "Superstrings that were supertiny shortly after the big bang could have been stretched by the expansion of the universe to cosmic size today, says Robert Myers of (where else?)…
hrynyshyn | September 28, 2006There aren't too many cabinet positions in a modern parliamentary democracy that don't require a modicum of respect for the scientific method. But in an era of climate change, bioengineering and species depletion, the politicians charged with overseeing environmental policy should surely be at the top of the list. Such is not the case in Canada, where Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has just appointed a creationist as her new chief of staff.
Darrel Reid used to be director of policy and research for the Reform party, a previous, and slightly more regressive, incarnation of the governing…
hrynyshyn | September 27, 2006My first post after moving the Island to ScienceBlogs was a list of science-themed popular songs. Not too surprisingly, there really wasn't much from which to choose. But it now gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a new tune that belongs at the top of any such list. I give you Chris Smither's "Origin of the Species," a track from the folk singer-songwriter's new CD "Leave the Light On." I can't think of another song that takes on intelligent design and pays tribute to Charles Darwin. Plus, it's a great piece of music in its own right, quite worthy of heavy rotation on the airwaves.
"…
hrynyshyn | September 23, 2006Nature offers a publicly accessible summary of a new study that suggests a physiological explanation for, among other things, out-of-body experiences, ghosts, alien surveillance and "the creepy feeling that somebody is close by." This is yet another example of how we're learning that the human brain is capable of manufacturing a paranormal virtual reality.
The scientific article (Arzy S., Seeck M., Ortigue S., Spinelli L.& Blanke O. Nature, 443. 287), refers to "a disturbance in the multisensory processing of body and self at the temporoparietal junction." In other words, errant…
hrynyshyn | September 21, 2006Anyone not already furious with the Bush administration's attempt to legalize torture as a general interrogation practice, rather than a case-specific emergency tactic, should first read this.
Then, if you still think torture works, go back and read it again. And again.
hrynyshyn | September 21, 2006As a freelance journalist, I don't have the luxury of turning down too many assignment offers. I was sorely tempted a few months back, though, when the potential client kept suggesting I use Wikipedia as the primary source for a series of articles.
The problem was the client wasn't willing to pay a decent rate for my time, and he figured that I wouldn't demand more if all I had to do was browse Wiki. I ended up accepting the contract -- like I said, I can't afford to be too picky -- but I didn't use Wiki. And I still don't trust a source that anyone can anonymously edit, especially if "…
hrynyshyn | September 20, 2006Anyone tried to watch the new USA Network series Psych? The one in which a sharp-eyed guy pretends to be psychic in order to get paid investigation gigs with the local police department? Well, don't bother. For one thing, the writers aren't having nearly as much fun making fun of psychics as they should. For another, it's already on hiatus until January. More importantly, however, the real Psych story is much more interesting.
Down in Colombia, it as it happens:
Colombia's chief prosecutor hired a psychic who hypnotized his staff and even performed an exorcism over a voodoo doll in exchange…
hrynyshyn | September 19, 2006Former Boston Globe science columnist and college prof. Chet Raymo has written a stirring ode to the value of ignorance in his latest Science Musings. Pascal, Priestly and Popper -- he covers them all. What he's done is put his finger on a counter-intuitive definition of science, and what a definition it is:
The purpose of science -- and indeed all education -- is to arrive at a state of ignorance, but an ignorance that is aware of itself.
One more excerpt should be enough to convince you to read the whole thing.
As long as our answers to these questions invoked the gods -- as they did for…
hrynyshyn | September 18, 2006Something is very wrong at Amazon.com. Maybe whoever programs the software that matches purchase patterns with new releases has a strange sense of humor, but the recommendation that showed up in my email box this morning suggests remedial action is in order.
A couple of years ago, I bought, from Amazon, a copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything for my father-in-law. This may have been a mistake, as my father-in-law hasn't been in the greatest shape since then. (One could argue that he's in great shape for someone on the far side of 80, but things certainly did start to go…
hrynyshyn | September 14, 2006Canada's federal government, under the newly elected Conservative Party of Stephen Harper, seems to have adopted the dishonest propaganda techniques of the Bush administration as part of an attempt to wiggle out of past governments' commitments -- weak as they were -- to address climate change. What they're doing, of course, is slandering the good name of doubt.
This surprises no one who has been watching the Harper government cosy up to discredited climate change denialists. But the recent editing of the Department of Environment's explanatory web page on the greenhouse effect is still…
hrynyshyn | September 14, 2006Much has been made of a good-journalism award handed by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists to Michael Crichton for his science-fiction novel, State of Fear. I wrote back in pre-Scienceblog days that the AAPG had gone off the deep end by confusing a bad novel with a "notable journalistic achievement in any medium which contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources, or the technology of oil and gas exploration."
Fortunately not all geologists are happy with the choice of recipient for that particular award. Via RealClimate we have a copy of a letter (PDF) that…
hrynyshyn | September 13, 2006At long last: scientific proof for intelligent design. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, the banana!
As far as I can tell, this guy is serious. He's the Rev. Ray Comfort. Gotta love him. Thanks to Jody Wheeler for bringing it to my attention
hrynyshyn | September 13, 2006And now, a guest post from a regular reader, Pierre in D.C.:
Sci-Fi channel. Its name evokes Star Trek reruns, Battlestar Galactica cliffhangers, a forum for sometimes innovative television but also mediocre low-budget series shot in Vancouver. But for some, it also means something else entirely ...
Some years ago, it featured Crossing Over. John Edwards was shown seemingly reading the thoughts of peoples past, and relaying them to an audience of emotionally-wrought decendents of those that have passed on. Of course, he used the technique of cold reading, which involves rapidly guessing a…
hrynyshyn | September 11, 2006Permit me to stray from the realms of science to briefly bring your attention to the results of a Discovery Channel/TIME magazine poll released last night, a poll that every decent American should be embarrassed to acknowledge. I can't find a link to it yet, but the details were discussed Sunday night on a live joint NPR-Discovery Channel program, "The Price of Security." There's also a link to the audio of the program here. The most disturbing finding of the poll: 25 percent of Americans would repeat one of the most shameful episodes in the country's history by rounding up all Arab Americans…
hrynyshyn | September 9, 2006I've only read the few pages that Amazon offers on its website, but I'm convinced Frederick Crews' "Follies of the Wise" is the science book of the year. Jerry Coynes reviews it in The Times Literary Supplement. How can anyone resist, with a precis like this:
Frederick Crews has made a much more thorough study of Freud, distilling and interpreting not only his whole corpus but also the past three decades of Freud scholarship. His conclusion is that Freud was indeed making it up as he went along. In Follies of the Wise, Crews takes on not only Freud and psychoanalysis, but also other fields of…
hrynyshyn | September 8, 2006And now, a little self-promotion. I have a piece up on Seed's online magazine, "The Anthropogenic Trap," in which I examine the warnings of some scientists who say we're taking the whole guilt thing too far. Here's the opening.
This year may be remembered as the year the weight of climate change finally began to sink in. It only took climate scientists two decades of banging their heads against the wall to accomplish it. While most observers call that cause for celebration, a few researchers are worried the climatologists have been too successful. They point to an increasing tendency to blame…
hrynyshyn | September 6, 2006I suppose it wouldn't be polite to celebrate the pending extinction of an entire culture, but what the heck? According to the New York Times, Zoroastrianism is about to go the way of Baal-worshipping. With "perhaps as few as 124,000" adherents left on the planet, and a death rate that exceeds the replacement rate, the future's not looking so bright the for musical inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
From one perspective, this is a sad thing. Followers of Zoroaster are among the more reasonable monotheists.
Zoroastrians believe in free will, so in matters of religion they do not believe in…
hrynyshyn | September 6, 2006Today's time-waster while I wait for the first coat of sky blue to dry in what used to be the study is reader-baiting. The targets are citizens of the U.K. The subject is the paranormal.
I ask you, what's with the enduring popularity of belief in ghosts, telepathy, and other such flaky beyond-belief stuff in Great Britain? To be fair, it's not as bad as creationism in America, not by a long shot. The British Isles are the birthplace of John Locke, David Hume and Bertrand Russell, after all, and the legacy of the Enlightenment continues to burn brightly in England, for most part. But still,…
hrynyshyn | September 5, 2006I'm a little late to this particular debate, but it's long been one of my favorite subjects, ever since I had a most intriguing encounter with a wild member of the species Tursiops truncatus, in Australia 16 years ago. More about that later. I, too, was taken aback by the recent media coverage of Manger's study of dolphin intelligence. What was even more surprising than his study, however, was his flipper flippant comment that dolphins trapped in tuna nets must be stupid because, "If they were really intelligent they would just jump over the net because it doesn't come out of the water."…
hrynyshyn | September 2, 2006Trust the gang at deSmogBlog to draw our attention to the latest discoveries in climatology: